Mariners have a miserable end to Yankees series: 3 Up, 3 Down

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NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 27: (L-R) Ben Gamel Mariners /

Sunday was a tough day for the Mariners. Tough doesn’t even scratch the surface of what Sunday was, but you all know how bad it really was, so I won’t go over in detail the sloppy, disconnected performance the Mariners put out against the Yankees.

As bad as that was, the Mariners didn’t get swept and they are still just a game and a half back of the wild card, and starting Monday they get three games against Orioles pitchers who have an average ERA of 5.82, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about. We’re here to talk about the last series, so we will look at the Yankees series in our typical three up, three down fashion.

3 Down

There was a lot to go on in this category from Saturday and Sunday’s game, but we’ll try and narrow it down to just three for the sake of this article.

1. The defense

Yikes. That’s about the only way to sum up the Mariners defensive weekend. They had 6 errors in the three days. Granted five of them came in the first inning of Sunday’s game, but that’s a sloppy weekend for a Mariners team that hangs its hat on stellar defense.

In 2017, the Mariners are a game over .500 because their subpar pitching can afford to more mistakes thanks to better defense, but when Albers took the mound Sunday, he got no help from his fielders and that led to a really rough game.

It’s hard for the Mariners to stomach a loss like that, because Albers gave them 5 innings of three-(earned)run ball, and if he gives them that on a normal day, the team might just pull out a win, but thanks to a lot of mistakes in the field, the game was pretty much over after the first.

2. The outfield bats

The hitting weekend was abysmal for the Mariners outfielders. They went a combined 4-for-36 over the three games, and if you remove Heredia, they went 1-for-26. Gamel and Haniger really struggled. The potent offensive outfield the Mariners once boasted has rapidly faded drastically. Who knows when, or if they’ll be able to snap out of it.

3. The Mariners rotation

It feels impossible to write an article about this team without bringing up the starting pitching, and here we are, yet again, talking about how the Mariners are always going to be one step behind the teams they are chasing when sending out Miranda, Gallardo, and Albers.

Even though it’s a little too late to drastically fix this, something is better than nothing it seems, and it doesn’t appear Dipoto really cares too much about it, and that’s a little disheartening.

NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 26: Guillermo Heredia /

3 Up

As much as we want to act like the weekend was the worst thing to ever happen to the Seattle Mariners, it wasn’t all horrible, and on the weekend there are some really good things to take away.

1. Yonder Alonso is a beast

While he only collected two hits in 7 weekend at-bats, his pinch-hit, game-winning homer in Friday’s game made everyone want to hug Jerry Dipoto and thank him for swapping Boog Powell for the All-Star first baseman. Since the deal, he’s hitting .288 with an OPS of .795 and has had his fair share of endearing moments. It seems safe to say most want him back next season.

2. Albers continues to be steady

While his ceiling may lie somewhere between “average” and “good,” Albers has shown in three starts that he can hang in the Mariners mediocre rotation. He’s making a reasonable case to be the Mariners fourth or fifth starter down the stretch, and I for one can’t really complain based on how he has pitched so far.

And yes, I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt in Sunday’s contest because he had no defensive help in the first inning and that would jade anyone’s day.

3. Corey’s Brother

Yes, yes, Player’s Weekend is over, but the clear, league-wide winner was Kyle Seager. With the cleverest of names on the back of his jersey, a nod to his younger brother who plays for the Dodgers, he came up with a nice knock in Friday’s game to make things interesting.

Next: 3 Ways the Mariners Can Improve before September 1st

In all, the Mariners had a tough weekend, but they still sit just a game and a half back of the second wild card spot, and can make that up pretty quickly if they play well against the Orioles. They likely weren’t going to catch the Yankees anyway, and they left themselves in a fine spot by not getting swept. What’s best for the team and the fans is to put this series behind us and move on to the next one.

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